Authenticity

How to Be True to Yourself

Do you ever feel as if you're wearing a mask? Perhaps you feel that you have to act in a certain way around your boss, or say certain things to your colleagues, so that you'll be accepted. Instead of being yourself, you're constantly playing a role to fit in, or to impress others.

Most of us have gone through times like this, at some stage or another. Instead of behaving in a genuine way, we tell people what we think they want to hear, and act in ways that go against our true nature. In short, we're living inauthentically.

Living and working this way is tiring, dispiriting, and confining. It can also hold us back from reaching our true potential. The opposite of this is to live and work authentically. When we give ourselves permission to be ourselves, we can live free from others' ideas and expectations, and we can choose our own course in life.

In this article, we'll examine authenticity in depth: what it is, what it entails, and how we can be more authentic in our own lives....